In June, when they bought him at the market,
He was just 35 kilos.
They put him in a clean cosy barn with much straw in it.
He grew up very quickly. He learnt how to go outside
To pee and pooh. He would never do it in the barn.
Every time someone strokes him on the back,
He turns upside down and exposes his belly.
They stroke him on his stomach and he smiles.
By the fall he has gained weight and now
He is more than 130 kilos. He is cute.
He is smart too. He looks you directly in the eye
And his eyes express everything he feels.
People understand him pretty well.
He likes his life,
Full of good people and good food.
He does not know that the day comes
When they will slaughter him for ham and sausage.
He will be in pain, refusing to understand
What is going on. His bleeding body will
Be convulsing and his eyes, full of horror,
Will look straight into the eyes of his murderers.

A Little Episode of the Life of a Very Important Officer

A wasp was moving along the curtain lace.
Moira opened the window and let it out into the crisp air of October.

A couple of hours later three more wasps appeared in her bedroom.
They looked exhausted. They did not fly, nor did they buzz.
They were just floundering up and down and looked like
Small people walking on the snow when seen from the helicopter.

Moira did not bother herself rescuing the wasps.
She pulled the vacuum cleaner out of the closet and all the three
Were sucked in.

She could see them inside on the soft surface of pressed dust,
Scared, humiliated and still alive.

The next two had a more miserable ending.

Moira took them one by one, protecting her hand with the silk of her pyjama top,
And threw them into the bowl.
They swam, frightened and perplexed, trying to get out.
She thought they were like fish out of water,
One of the wasps touched the side of the surface and almost crawled out,
But at that very second Moira flushed the toilet.

She watched them spinning down.
She closed the cover.

Farida Samerkhanova lives in Toronto. Her first language is Tatarian, her second Russian. She writes in English. Her poems were included in "The Maynard Anthology 2008" (Canada), in the collection "Immortal Verses" (USA) and in "Favourite Memories", a book of poetry published in the UK. Her poems, stories and essays have appeared in "Canadian Stories", "Ygdrasil", blueskiespoetry.ca, "Danse Macabre", "The Write Place at the Write Time" and also in
“Seeding the Snow”, “Calliope”, “Word Salad” and “Tower Poetry”.

The pig was photographed by Miro Homesin. The poet was photographed by Ildar Samerkhanov.